Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)

With runners on first and second with two outs, and the Rays up one in today's Patriots' Day morning start at Fenway, it came down to Fernando Rodney and Cody Ross. Rodney threw five straight balls outside, except three of them weren't strictly balls, since home plate ump Larry Vanover called them strikes.